


Run, Jeremy, Run

by Bubbly_Kandy



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, I tried to make it hetero, ITS GONNA BE GAY, Jeremy is 25 and Michael is 26, M/M, THEYRE SCIENTISTS, also sad, haha nope, ill try not to hurt them too much, just putting that out there, more tags as time goes on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 15:42:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11489502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubbly_Kandy/pseuds/Bubbly_Kandy
Summary: My name is Jeremy Heere. I am the fastest boy alive. (But not in that way, just- Whatever.)





	1. Chapter 1

_To understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to do something first. You need to believe in the impossible._

_Can you do that?_  

 _Good._  

 _My name is Jeremy Heere. I am the fastest boy alive. (But not in that way, just- Whatever.)_  

 _My story is pretty simple and basic. My whole life, I've been running. Usually from bullies who would pick on my best friend, Michael, then chase me when I stood up to them. They mostly didn't catch me, but when they did, I would come home with a black eye and a bruise on my cheek. My mom would always fix me up. Life was good._  

 _Until that night._  

Jeremy woke up to the feeling of something was wrong. He sat up in bed, trying to pinpoint what. His eyes scanned over his room, then locked onto his fish tank.

The water was rising out of it. Bubbles of it were floating in the air, and one of his fish were flopping around desperately mid air. Jeremy got out of his bed, walked over to the tank, gently grabbed the fish, and placed it back in the water. Since it was 2 in the morning, the ten-year-old didn't think much of it. He thought it was a dream.   

Until there was a scream from down stairs. Jeremy woke up instantly, running in his bare feet down the hall and to the stairs, where he saw flashes of orange and blue light. He thumped down the stairs, freezing when he saw two circles of light encircling his mom. She looked terrified.

"Mom!" He yelled. His mother then saw him, shaking her head as he tried to go closer.

"Jeremy, no!"   

"Mom!" He sounded like a broken record, just repeating that one word over and over and over.  _"Mommy!"_ He felt two hands land on his shoulders. He screamed, trying to get out of their hold.

"Jeremy!" The thing spun him around, placing him face to face with his dad. Jeremy was breathing quickly, tears starting to fill his eyes.  

"Dad, you have to-" His dad only shook him by the shoulders.  

"Run, Jeremy,  _run!_ " Before he could ask why, a blue flash filled his eyesight, and wind hit his face.   

He was outside. He spun around in a circle, trying to see through the darkness.   

When a police car sped by, he started jogging after it, then started running at full speed. A few blocks later, he stumbled to a stop in front of his house. Police cars, ambulances, and a fire truck were all parked on his lawn. He was catching his breath as two police men led a man outside in handcuffs. Jeremy felt his breath disappear as he recognized the man.  

" _Dad!_ " He started to run towards his dad. The police officer closest to him held out a hand, saying,  

"Son, this man is dangerous." Jeremy shook his head.

"He's my dad! He can't be dangerous!" The police officer looked lost.  

"Yes, before you ask, he's my son. Whats going to happen to him?" Mr. Heere was being lead away to a police car, with no answer. "What's going to happen to my son?" Jeremy felt shaky.   

"Where are you taking my dad?" He asked. A female officer was suddenly in his field of vision.    

"Sweetie, you're dad is being taken to be questioned by the police." Jeremy felt panic build up.  

"He didn't do it! Whatever you're saying he did, he didn't do it!" His knees felt shakier than before. He started walk towards the house before being gently grabbed by another officer. His dad was being pushed into the police car, yelling to Jeremy,  

"Don't go into the house, Jeremy!" He broke away from the grip on his shoulder, running towards his house. " _Jeremiah Mitchell Heere, do not go into that house!_ " He opened the door. More officers were walking around the inside of his house, most of them inside the living room, where his mom was. He pushed past people until he saw a blue bodybag where he last saw his mom.

 His entire body went numb.   

"Oh, sh- crap, there's a kid." He heard someone mutter. Jeremy knelt by the bodybag, trying to get his hands to work as he fumbled with the zipper. "Whats he doing?"   

"Let him. Its his mom." Another hand covered his, and he looked up to see Michael's dad.   

"You know him?"   

"Yeah. My son and him have been friends since kindergarten." Jeremy unzipped the bag, his body undergoing another wave of numbness. He felt like he was going to puke.  

" _Mom,_ mom, that's- that's my mom, she, she's-" He suddenly gagged, and Michael's dad whisked him away to the bathroom. He vomited, then sobbed. "Mommy,  _mommy,_ she can't be dead, she  _can't-"_ He sobbed harder, tears dripping into his mouth and down his neck. Michael's dad took him into his arms, letting Jeremy bawl into his shoulder. 

 _After that night, I was running from something much scarier. Something I could never explain._  

_Something impossible._


	2. Chapter 2

_ 15 years later _

Jeremy was in his forensics lab, typing quickly on his computer and mumbling to himself.

“Fecal matter with a rare fertiliser, found in only-” he sputtered in surprise, “four farms in all of New Jersey? Damn.” He started printing the results when the door opened. He turned in his spinny chair to see Brooke Lohst, one of his friends from high school. 

“Hey, Brooke.” 

“Hey.” She entered his vision, then flopped dramatically across an empty table. “I’m  _ dying,  _ Jeremy.” 

“I thought I was the dramatic one.” Jeremy said cooly, re-reading the page he had printed out. Brooke groaned.

“Shut it, you. I’m dying because we started selling cronuts at the coffee shop.  _ Cronuts!”  _ Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

“And that’s bad because-?” He made a ‘go on’ hand motion. Brooke rolled her eyes and grabbed a piece of toast untouched by Jeremy’s mouth.

“I’m gonna get fat. If I don’t graduate college soon, I’ll be more muffin top than woman.” Jeremy scoffed.

“You’ll be the prettiest muffin top I’ve ever seen.” He said, then blushed. “Oh god, was that weird? It sounded weird, dear god. I-” Brooke cut him off.

“No, no, it was sweet, really!” She assured him, then chuckled. “I swear, Jeremy. You’re from this subhuman species of ‘Adorable Nerds.’ You and Michael.” Jeremy flushed, hiding his face behind his computer. 

“Mmph.” Brooke started to wander around his lab, picking up random objects that piqued her interest. 

“Speaking of Michael, what are the plans for tonight?” Jeremy looked up at her, confusion evident. “That… SQUEEB dude or something.” Jeremy stared blankly at her for three more seconds before it clicked. 

Suddenly energized, he jumped up, eyes bright. 

“Oh yeah!” Jeremy sat back down on his chair, spinning around excitedly. “God, this is gonna be awesome!” Brooke rolled her eyes again. 

“What’s so important with SQUEEB and this particle accelerator?” Brooke took another bite of toast. “And you’d better tell me, because I canceled a date for this.” Jeremy got out of his chair, heading towards his whiteboard, which had graffiti on it from the last time Michael visited. 

“First of all, its  _ SQUIP,  _ not  _ SQUEEB.  _ Secondly, his invention will change lives. His quantum theories are light years ahead of what they’re doing over at DEH.” Brooke stared at him blankly.

“Yeah, uh, you’re doing that thing where you’re not speaking English.” She told him. 

“Here, say this dot,” he scribbled a dot on the board, “Is everything the human race has ever seen, created, done, and thought of.” 

“Does that involve twerking?” Brooke giggled. Jeremy ignored her.

“And  _ this, _ ” he drew a huge circle around the dot, “Is everything we can do with the particle accelerator. It’s a whole new way of looking at physics, see? It’ll literally change the way we think about  _ everything _ .” He finished, a bit winded from his explanation. Brooke headed over and tapped him on the nose.

"You have  _ got  _ to get yourself a date. Boy, girl, non-binary, doesn’t matter.” Jeremy pouted playfully. 

“Hey, you two. Jeremy here is working.” Michael’s dad was at the door, leaning against the frame.

“Was that a pun?” Jeremy asked. The man shrugged. 

“Perhaps. What do you have?” Jeremy stepped away from Brooke, picked up his sheet, and scanned over it again before talking again.

“Alright. I think your Barton brothers are hiding on a farm. See, the fecal matter I tested had high traces of oxytetracycline.” To their confused looks, Jeremy added, “It’s a antibiotic. There are only four farms in New Jersey that still use it in their feed.” He handed the paper to Michael’s dad. “I’d bet you will find a very sweet Ford Mustang parked at one of them.” Michael’s dad chuckled. 

“Nice. Thanks, Jeremy.” Brooke sautered over, placing herself by Jeremy, crossing her arms.

“Well, I think since Jeremy solved your poop problem, he deserves to go to BMC Labs tonight? For the particle accelerator boot up?” Mr. Mell huffed.

“Fine. Go.” Brooke smiled and clapped her hands.

“Awesome! Thank you, Mister Mell!” She started to drag Jeremy out of the lab. He pulled back to say,

“Thanks, David.” 

“You’re welcome, Jeremy.” The boy was then tugged out of sight.  

\---------

Three hours later, Brooke and Jeremy were headed to the particle accelerator opening. Michael said he had a sudden change of plans, which Jeremy was disappointed at, but he still liked hanging out with Brooke. 

They were both wearing dark blue, (“C’mon Jeremy, wouldn’t matching colors be cute?” “I guess. But no pink.” “Of course not.”) and they both wore their reading glasses. Brooke said that she wanted to look like an adorable nerd, so Jeremy wanted to one-up her. 

They pushed to the front of the crowd, being nearly face-to-face with the stage. They bickered playfully for a while longer before the crowd hushed. Jeremy looked up, and saw himself being three feet away from SQUIP. All the air left his lungs. 

No one knew SQUIP’s real name. Everyone only called him that because he had released his initials, (S, U, and P) and someone on the internet had added the Q and I. It didn’t bother him; he started to refer to himself as SQUIP. 

He started talking. 

“My name, as you all have affectionately named me, is SQUIP.” The audience murmured with laughter. “Thank you for coming out here tonight, because tonight, the future begins. The work my team and I will do here will change our understanding of physics. It will bring about advancements in power, advancements in medicine, and trust me, that future will be here faster than you think.” He started saying more, but Brooke suddenly yelled.

“Hey!” Jeremy turned towards her. “My laptop, all of my research is on there!” Jeremy started running towards where he saw the thief go, chasing him for about a block before cornering him. 

“All right kid,” Jeremy said slowly. “You don’t need to take that. Just give me my friends laptop, and we’ll call it even, alright?” He walked closer, holding out a hand. The kid let him come closer, then sucker punched him in the gut. 

“Ow!” Jeremy gasped, stumbling backwards into a wall. “ _ Shit,  _ ow!” The thief climbed the chain fence behind him and  _ damn, Jeremy should’ve saw that.  _   


“Jeremy!” He heard Brooke cry. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m- _ hhgh- _ I’ve never been better,” He wheezed. Brooke slung his arm over her shoulder, heaving him up. It was starting to rain.

“Let’s get back to the station.” She said. Jeremy huffed.

“Good idea.” 

\---------

The two had started to head towards Jeremy’s upstairs lab when they heard Brooke’s name being called. Jeremy had recovered enough to walk by himself, so Brooke spun around quickly on her heel. 

“Miss Lohst!” A new guy, (Jeremy had never seen him before) was jogging up to them, holding up Brooke’s purse, which held her laptop. He caught up to them, handed Brooke her purse, then introduced himself. “Rich Goranski. I’m new.” Jeremy waved. He had blonde hair with a streak of red in the middle, like a chicken. Jeremy made a conscious effort not to laugh.  

“Thank you, Mister Goranski,” Brooke said, then turned to Jeremy. “I’m going to go home. How about you?” Jeremy shook his head.

“Nah, I’m going to watch the rest of the particle accelerator boot up, then clean up my lab.” Brooke hummed.

“Okay, see you tomorrow!” She walked off, clutching her purse tightly. Rich watched her go, whistling under his breath. He then turned to Jeremy, clearly expecting something. 

“Uh-” Jeremy was lost, “Thanks? For getting her purse back, I mean.” Rich scoffed.

“Dude. This is where the boyfriend establishes the relationship, places himself as alpha, yadda yadda yadda.” Jeremy sputtered.

“I’m not- We’re not-” Rich smiled.

“Oh. You’re gay?” 

“No!” Jeremy shrieked, then embarrassedly lowered his voice. “She’s just-” 

“Is she gay?” Jeremy groaned.

“No. She’s pan. I-” 

“Is she cool with you telling people that?” Jeremy nodded.

“She’s super open about it.” Rich hummed.

“Cool. I’m bi.” Jeremy suddenly laughed a bit.

“Uh, me too.” Rich smiled widely.

“Bi bros!” He cheered, holding his hand up for a high five. Jeremy weakly slapped it. “But seriously, you think I might have a chance?” Jeremy smiled crookedly.

“She likes tall guys. What are you, 5’2?” Rich stomped on his foot. Jeremy yelped. “Ow!” 

“I’m 5’5, tallass.” Jeremy snickered, then caught sight of the time. 

“Oh, I gotta go. Watching the particle- yeah.” Rich nodded, slapping his shoulder.

“See ya-?” 

“Jeremy. Jeremy Heere.” 

“See ya, Heere.” Rich then smirked. “That’s weird-”

“I know. Trust me, I know.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Jeremy tried to run up the stairs to his workplace, but the bruise forming on his stomach started to yell at him, (quite rudely, if he may add) so he just walked.

Rain was beating the windows and ceiling, and there was a leak from the window on the ceiling. Jeremy simply got a pot from his cupboard and placed it under the water dripping. It made a calming sound.

He took off his glasses, placing them by his computer. He massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to get rid of the numbness. He scrunched it a few times afterwards.

Jeremy turned on his TV. The particle accelerator was just being turned on as he watched. A reporter was standing just outside a fence, the accelerator visible behind her.

“ _I’m Alana Beck, and we’re live outside of BMC Labs, despite the inclement weather which is only going to get worse.The torrential downpour has in no way affected the particle accelerator, which is up and running smoothly according to BMC Labs.”_ Jeremy felt his heart start to race. The possibilities for this thing were _endless!_

There was a flash of lightning. Jeremy flinched, but didn’t run completely out of the room. He stayed by the TV, his jaw dropping as he saw something flare up and explode, shaking the camera. Alana Beck was looking over her shoulder, turning back towards the camera, a panicked look on her face. When she spoke, though, she was calm.

 _“Wait, we are now being told to evacuate the facility.The storm may have caused a malfunction to the primary cooling system. Officials are now trying to shut down the particle accelerator. But so far they have been unable to regain-”_ The screen blanked out. Jeremy stood, frozen, until a loud _boom_ of thunder snapped him back into action.

He replaced the overflowing pot with a new one underneath the leak, then turned to cover the window on the ceiling. To do that, he would have to grab two metal chains and pull on one, kind of like a pulley system. He grabbed one, the metal cold and slick against his grip. He started to cover the window when he saw a mushroom cloud outside. He paused, staring dumbly at the cloud until he saw a shock wave billow out.

Lightning flashed, but, oddly, it was _blue._ Thunder crashed the same time it struck.

He looked up, seeing the glass above him shatter.

A bolt of electricity threw him backwards into his shelf of forensic supplies. He felt his head crash into something, but only barely under the shocks of electricity ripping through his body. If he could have screamed, he would have.

He blacked out.

\----

His hearing came back before he felt awake enough to open his eyes. There were two voices along with… Was that _Clouds?_

“How do you know he likes this song?” A female-sounding voice asked. The other person scoffed.

“I’ve been his best friend ever since _kindergarten._ I think I would know some things about him.” The voice started humming along to the song, sounding like he went further away from Jeremy. “But, yeah, looks like he’s waking up.”

“I’m the doctor here!” The female voice snapped. “I’m the one who says he’s waking up.” There was silence for a few seconds. “He’s waking up.”

“Doctor knows best.” Jeremy lazily opened his eyes. A pretty girl with dark brown eyes and black hair was beside him, and- was that-?

“Michael?” He sat up, pulling at a IV and disrupting a breathing tube in his nose. The girl jumped in surprise.

“Dear God!” Michael spun around, his eyes wide behind his glasses.

“He’s up!” He grabbed a intercom. “SQUIP, get to the cortex, like right now.” He hung up. He then smiled sheepishly at Jeremy.

“Michael? You… Work here?” Jeremy asked, being fussed over by the girl. Michael sucked in a breath through his teeth.

“Ah, no, child,” He said, his voice slipping into a thick accent. “I am not the Michael you speak of. My name is… George?” Jeremy weakly squinted at him.

“Yeah, and my name is Will.” He shot back. Michael ran his hands through his hair.

“Okay, okay, fine. I work here. In BMC Labs. You caught me.” He said, defeatedly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jeremy asked, having a light shone in his eyes.

“Because- God, I don’t know!” The girl scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Michael, you do know. SQUIP told us not to tell.” She faced Jeremy, holding up a small cup. “I need you to pee in this.”

“Okay!” Michael yelled, walking over quickly and placing his hand on the girl's shoulder. “Christine, darling, before you ask to see someone’s piss, you introduce yourself. It's the polite thing to do.” Christine glared at him.

“I’m Christine Canguila. I’m the doctor.” The girl, who was now known as Christine, held up the cup again. “Urinate in this.” Michael batted the cup away.

“Not this second.” Jeremy was confused.

“What- what is happening? What the hell is going on?” Michael let out a loud breath.

“You were struck by _lightning,_ dude.” Michael smiled, but it was clearly fake. His eyes were concerned and scared. Jeremy started to get up. “Whoa, whoa, hey, you shouldn't-” Jeremy pushed past him and Christine, and saw himself, shirtless, in a mirror.

“Lightning… gave me abs?” Michael snorted quietly. Christine strided over, starting to talk and squeeze his arm muscles at the same time, which felt extremely creepy.  

“This is strange. Your muscles should be atrophied, but instead they're in a chronic and unexplained state of cellular regeneration. Which does _not_ happen to coma patients.”

“I was in a coma?” Michael nodded, sitting on the hospital bed and patting the space next to him.

“Yeah. For nine months.” Jeremy nearly screamed.

“You mean, for _nine months,_ I was practically dead? For nine months, I was sleeping?” Michael pursed his lips and nodded.

“Yeah. It was wack, man.” He started to say more, but a deeper voice interrupted him.

“Welcome back, Mister Heere.” Jeremy looked over at where it was coming from, and _holy shit._

“That’s SQUIP,” he whimpered, being seemingly frozen. “Oh my god, that’s SQUIP.” Michael stood next to him.  

“Uh, sir, he’s a big, no, actually, _huge_ fan of yours,” he said, then pinched Jeremy with his nails at the small of his back. “ _Snap out of it,”_ he hissed. Jeremy squeaked, but snapped out of it.

“I’ve always wanted to meet you,” Jeremy breathed, biting his lip. SQUIP chuckled, and rolled forward in his electric wheelchair.

“Yeah? Well, you certainly went to great lengths to do that.” He tossed his head towards the door. “Walk- well, come with me. But first, Christine?” She bounced out of the medical bay.

“Sir?”

“Give Mister Heere a shirt, please.”

\----

“BMC Labs has not been operational since FEMA categorized us as a class 4 hazardous location. Many more were injured. Myself amongst them.” SQUIP said as they wandered down a hallway.

“Geez.” Jeremy said softly. SQUIP scoffed.

“‘Geez’ pretty much describes it.” He agreed.

“What even happened?” Jeremy asked.

“What happened? Nine months ago, the particle accelerator went online, exactly as planned. For forty-five minutes I had achieved my life's dream and then- then there was an anomaly. The electron volts became unmeasurable, the ring under us popped, energy from that detonation was thrown into the sky, and that, in turn seeded a storm cloud-”

“And that was what struck me.” Jeremy finished. SQUIP nodded.

“Precisely. I was recovering myself when I heard about you. The hospital was undergoing unexplainable power outages every time you were going into cardiac arrest, which was, actually a misdiagnosis, because you see, you weren't flat-lining, Jeremy, your heartbeat was moving too fast for the EKG to register it.” Jeremy looked down at the floor.

“I need to go,” he said when they arrived back where they started. Michael and Christine both looked up at the same time.

“What? Dude, no.” Michael said, walking away from his computer. “Now that you’re awake, Christine has to do more tests.” Christine nodded.

“There's so much we still don’t know, Jeremy.” She said, absentmindedly entangling her fingers together. “You’re still going through changes, and-”

“I’m fine, really.” Jeremy cut her off. “I feel normal. Thanks for saving my life.” He waved towards Michael. “See you, Michael.” Michael waved back. Jeremy disappeared around the corner, then reappeared. “Can I keep the sweatshirt?”

SQUIP sighed. “Keep the sweatshirt, Jeremy.”

“Thanks.” He disappeared again.


End file.
